Halifax, NS Disaster, Dec 1917

Montreal, Dec. 6. -- It was estimated in Halifax that the dead will be around twelve hundred, though this total, it is explained by the telegraph company receiving the information, is said to be quite unofficial. The greatest damage done is in the wholesale and residential districts. The explosion rocked the business buildings and broke much glass, but the casualties in this section were small. The fires all over the north end of the city were caused by stoves overturning.
The damage done will be many millions, but no correct estimate is possible at this time. Direct telegraphic connection with Halifax was established this afternoon and it was then learned that the explosion was caused when the cargo of a French munitions ship exploded after the vessel had been rammed by a Norwegian boat carrying foodstuffs.

LATEST FROM HALIFAX.
Halifax, N.S., via St. John, N.B., Dec. 6. -- The fire was brought under control this afternoon. Richmond is destroyed. Several hundred persons have been killed and the wounded number thousands. Not a house in the city escaped damage. Pieces of iron and shrapnel have been found three miles from the waterfront.

St. John, N.B., Dec. 6. -- Communication with Halifax was established by the Canadian Pacific Telegraph company this afternoon. It was learned that as a result of the explosion of the American munitions ship this morning nearly one half of the north end of the city is flat, that a great fire is raging, that the dead are lying thick in the streets and that all the hospitals are full to overflowing, so that many injured are compelled to walk about untreated.
A number of Canadian Pacific railway operators are reported injured.

SEVERAL HUNDRED KILLED.
Truro, N.S., Dec. 6. -- Reports reached here this afternoon that it was feared that several hundred people lost their lives when the railway station at Halifax collapsed. Twenty-five railway workers were killed on the track near Richmond.
This afternoon word from Halifax gave the number of dead from the munition ship explosion at 300.
The ship that collided with the munition vessel was a Red Cross liner.

MANY HUNDRED INJURED.
Truro, N.S., Dec. 6. -- (2:30 p.m. Atlantic time). -- Three hundred dead and many hundred injured was the estimate this afternoon of the casualties resulting when a large American munition ship rammed a passenger liner near the piers at Halifax today.

FIRST STORY.
Amherst, N.S., Dec. 6. -- Scores of people have been killed, hundreds of buildings destroyed, and a portion of Halifax set on fire by an explosion which occurred following the collision of an American ammunition ship and another vessel at Rockingham, according to telephone messages reaching here this morning. The explosion was so terrific that it destroyed the installation in the telegraph and telephone offices for thirty miles around Halifax, while it was heard at Truro, N.S., sicty-one miles distant.
Messages for fire engines and fire fighting apparatus, doctors and nurses, hospital supplies, etc., were received by a number of localities in Nova Scotia from Halifax. Special trains were made up with everything required that could be secured.
At Truro, Windsor and here the city councils met this morning and decided to render aid to the afflicted people of Halifax. It is understood that large quantities of food were destroyed, and that the citizens of Halifax may soon be in danger of starving. It was decided that carloads of food must be dispatched at once. The damage done to the Western Union and Canadian Pacific Telegraph Companies and Nova Scotia Telephone Company is so complete that it will be days before wire communication with points outside Halifax can be restored.

COMMUNICATION OFF.
Montreal, Dec. 6. -- Reports reaching telegraph companies here indicate that the explosion near Halifax had affected their dynamos. All wire communication with Halifax and outside points was severed.
According to reports reaching here a number of people were killed when the explosion occurred in Halifax this morning.

CUT OFF.
New York, Dec. 6. -- Halifax has been cut off from all communication with the rest of the world, either by wire or cable, according to officials of the Western Union Telegraph Company in this city. All land lines are down and the plant of the United States Cable Company at Halifax has been so damaged by the explosion that it cannot be operated.